While setup went on outside for the Greenbridge Plaza party that’s part of today’s White Center Spring Clean, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott – sporting a maroon Spring Clean T-shirt – spoke to more than 50 people at Dubsea Coffee this morning. His hourlong Q/A touched on topics from Occupy Wall Street to the presidential election to farm subsidies, with much more inbetween. We recorded it all on video and will add that later, along with more toplines.

ADDED 3:23 PM: There’s the video – note it’s a coffeehouse and a casual roving format, so the audio quality varies greatly!

“If someone [still] doesn’t know the caucuses are happening, we can’t help them at this point,” said 34th District Democrats chair Tim Nuse at Wednesday night’s monthly meeting, mentioning an awareness-raising campaign that he said has included 7,000 door-knocks, thousands of phone calls (including 10,000 robocalls Wednesday with a message from King County Executive Dow Constantine), and paid ads (including one here on WSB).

That would be the Democratic precinct caucuses – happening this Sunday at 1 pm at locations all around the district (if you’re a Democrat, find your location here). Even though the presidential candidate is not up for debate, the 34th DDs say there is much to talk about and many reasons to attend yours. But after that pep talk, Wednesday night’s meeting at The Hall at Fauntleroy in West Seattle moved on to many ways of looking ahead to August and November, including a surprise speech by our area’s Congressmmember, and three mini-campaign-forums – we have them all on video, ahead:

U.S. REP. JIM McDERMOTT: He wasn’t on the agenda but he showed up and declared this year’s election to be one of the most important elections in our nation’s history. “The single last piece of safety net in this country is health care,” he said. “And the opportunity to be there and to work on it is what I’m looking forward to.” He says he believes President Obama “has accomplished a tremendous amount in the face of continual opposition.” Here’s our unedited video of everything he said:

EARLY ENDORSEMENT SLATE: Rep. McDermott was part of a slate of Democratic incumbents/candidates that the group gave an early block endorsement to last night: President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, U.S. Rep. McDermott, Jay Inslee (governor), Bob Ferguson (attorney general), Peter Goldmark (lands commissioner), State Rep. Eileen Cody, and State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon. First, they also heard from one candidate’s spouse – Trudi Inslee, for 39 years the wife of governor candidate Jay Inslee.

She declared the 34th “the biggest LD [legislative district] meeting we’ve been to.” She was accompanied by their daughter Samantha; she explained he was at a meeting tonight in Lacey. “We’re excited about this race, we feel good about it, we’re going to have a lot of ups and downs, as you know … but we’re going to win this thing with your help,” she said.

Other endorsements will be considered at the next meeting May 9th.

CANDIDATE FORUMS: The meeting included three candidates’ forums for three statewide offices. We recorded each on video so you can watch, unedited, now or when the August primary is closer. First, secretary of state, with candidates Kathleen Drew, State Sen. Jim Kastama, and former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels:

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Next, State Supreme Court:

State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens is running unopposed but made a very brief speech toward the start of the meeting – we picked it up after her quip that she’s from Forks and doesn’t have to explain any more where that is.

Finally, the two-candidate forum for state auditor:

As we mentioned, the next 34th DDs meeting is May 9th – 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy, or come at 6:30 to mingle – but first, the aforementioned caucuses, 1 pm this Sunday (April 15th), lots of info/resources here.

On our way back from a story to the east, we stopped at 3.14 Bakery in downtown White Center to see how Pi(e) Day (3.14!) was going – and found a table full of distinguished gatherers who had chosen 3.14 for a meeting. From left, if you don’t recognize them all, that’s Mikel Davila from White Center Community Development Association, King County Sheriff’s Office Storefront Deputy BJ Myers, Michelle Allison from King County Councilmember Joe McDermott‘s team, and CM McDermott himself (who pointed out they had already purchased boxed pie to take back to the office downtown). As for us – decided not to go with the pie, but the triple-chocolate cake ball is to die for.

Before the night’s out, we should know how our state’s Republicans voted in today’s presidential “straw poll.” That was one of two main tasks they faced as they gathered this morning for precinct caucuses all around our state, including White Center, south West Seattle, north Burien and vicinity gathering at the Evergreen Campus. We stopped by about midway through, to get a look at the turnout; 34th District Republicans chair Jim Clingan led the event, and told us about 200 people turned out:

(This photo and next one, courtesy Dick Hurley)
Campaign signs were low key .. we saw a few Ron Paul signs on a table outside, and someone carrying others out of the main room – but there were some cheery touches:

As we write this, the results are starting to come in – you can follow them on the Washington State Republican Party’s Tumblr site.